Mexican Lime Soup with Chicken

This cold has grabbed me by the collar and slammed me up against the wall. And yes, I’m resorting to chicken soup, spiked heavily with lime. Which comes in very handy considering how much stock I currently have in my freezer.

In December I shot fifty soups for the next Soup Sisters cookbook, due out this fall via Appetite by Random House. Teams of other volunteers were rounded up to cook as I styled and shot, but while most of the excess was delivered to shelters, the short days meant a loss of light and many containers came home with me to be photographed in my kitchen. As you can imagine there was plenty of leftover soup hanging around my fridge. This one stood out – it’s simple and tasty – just chicken, onions and broth, no noodles to interrupt by slurplily splattering all over your chin, necessitating extra Kleenex. But really what I love is the crumbled feta and sliced avocado combined with the warm lime. I’m about to haul myself out of bed and go make another batch. Any minute now.

Admittedly, I rarely cook chicken specifically for soup as it specifies in the recipe; most often I find myself making stock out of meaty bones, coaxing that meat to fall off into the pot. (Often I’ll simmer stock out of a not-quite-finished bird for meatier soups.) The original called for browning bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts, then simmering them in the soup, taking them out and dicing before returning to the pot; you could do this, or just pull the leftover roast chicken (or turkey) from your freezer, like I do. There’s almost always a baggie or two in there.

Directions

1Juice two of the limes and cut the third into wedges to serve with the soup.

2Heat a drizzle of oil in a medium pot and sauté the onion for 3-4 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and jalapeño and cook for another minute. Add the chicken, stock, lime juice and oregano. Season with salt and pepper to taste and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes or so, then ladle into bowls and top with crumbled feta and sliced or diced avocado.